Bands of brigands unite to subvert a country, place it under tribute, seize its lands, enslave its inhabitants. The expedition completed, the chieftain of the robbers adopts the title of monarch or king. Such is the origin of Royalty among all tribes—huntsmen, agriculturists, shepherds.
A second brigand arrives who finds it equitable to take away by force what was conquered by violence: he dispossesses the first; he chains him, kills him, reigns in his place. Ere long time effaces the memory of this origin; the successors rule under a new form; they do a little good, from policy; they corrupt all who surround them; they invent fictitious genealogies to make their families sacred (1); the knavery of priests comes to their aid; they take Religion for a life-guard: thenceforth tyranny becomes immortal, the usurped power becomes an hereditary right.
1 The Boston Investigator's compilation of Paine's Works
contains the following as supposed to be Mr. Paine's:
"Royal Pedigree.—George the Third, who was the grandson of
George the Second, who was the son of George the First, who
was the son of the Princess Sophia, who was the cousin of
Anne, who was the sister of William and Mary, who were the
daughter and son-in-law of James the Second, who was the son
of Charles the First, who was a traitor to his country and
decapitated as such, who was the son of James the First, who
was the son of Mary, who was the sister of Edward the Sixth,
who was the son of Henry the Eighth, who was the coldblooded
murderer of his wives, and the promoter of the Protestant
religion, who was the son of Henry the Seventh, who slew
Richard the Third, who smothered his nephew Edward the
Fifth, who was the son of Edward the Fourth, who with bloody
Richard slew Henry the Sixth, who succeeded Henry the Fifth,
who was the son of Henry the Fourth, who was the cousin of
Richard the Second, who was the son of Edward the Third, who
was the son of Richard the Second, who was the son of Edward
the First, who was the son of Henry the Third, who was the
son of John, who was the brother of Richard the First, who
was the son of Henry the Second, who was the son of Matilda,
who was the daughter of Henry the First, who was the brother
of William Rufus, who was the son of William the Conqueror,
who was the son of a whore."—Editor.
The effects of Royalty have been entirely harmonious with its origin. What scenes of horror, what refinements of iniquity, do the annals of monarchies present! If we should paint human nature with a baseness of heart, an hypocrisy, from which all must recoil and humanity disavow, it would be the portraiture of kings, their ministers and courtiers.
And why should it not be so? What should such a monstrosity produce but miseries and crimes? What is monarchy? It has been finely disguised, and the people familiarized with the odious title: in its real sense the word signifies the absolute power of one single individual, who may with impunity be stupid, treacherous, tyrannical, etc. Is it not an insult to nations to wish them so governed?
Government by a single individual is vicious in itself, independently of the individual's vices. For however little a State, the prince is nearly always too small: where is the proportion between one man and the affairs of a whole nation?
True, some men of genius have been seen under the diadem; but the evil is then even greater: the ambition of such a man impels him to conquest and despotism, his subjects soon have to lament his glory, and sing their Te-deums while perishing with hunger. Such is the history of Louis XIV. and so many others.
But if ordinary men in power repay you with incapacity or with princely vices? But those who come to the front in monarchies are frequently mere mean mischief-makers, commonplace knaves, petty intriguers, whose small wits, which in courts reach large places, serve only to display their ineptitude in public, as soon as they appear. (*) In short, monarchs do nothing, and their ministers do evil: this is the history of all monarchies.
But if Royalty as such is baneful, as hereditary succession it is equally revolting and ridiculous. What! there exists among my kind a man who pretends that he is born to govern me? Whence derived he such right? From his and my ancestors, says he. But how could they transmit to him a right they did not possess? Man has no authority over generations unborn. I cannot be the slave of the dead, more than of the living. Suppose that instead of our posterity, it was we who should succeed ourselves: we should not to-day be able to despoil ourselves of the rights which would belong to us in our second life: for a stronger reason we cannot so despoil others.
An hereditary crown! A transmissible throne! What a notion! With even a little reflexion, can any one tolerate it? Should human beings then be the property of certain individuals, born or to be born? Are we then to treat our descendants in advance as cattle, who shall have neither will nor rights of their own? To inherit government is to inherit peoples, as if they were herds. It is the basest, the most shameful fantasy that ever degraded mankind.